﻿Press quotes﻿

"These songs may have all started life as unfinished bits and pieces, but they've grown into wondrous creations under the watchful eyes of these men. Hopefully a Volume Two will follow.”- Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz

“...impressive post bop material, with rich and intelligent arrangements and a clever mix of melody and improvisation….You’ll like these guys!”–George Harris, JazzWeekly

“...an album that touches on many aspects of the jazz vernacular, yet it's a comprehensive agenda that is impressively concocted with the ensemble's hallmark sound and unassuming complexities.” –Glenn Astartia, All About Jazz

"...But more important than their long lists of credits is that these five musicians all have compatible styles and listen closely to each other, two qualities that give Sketches its own group sound… With consistently fine solos (pianist Cherner is particularly inventive) and worthy themes, Volume One is an excellent start for Sketches.” –Scott Yanow, Jazz Inside Magazine

Bio

﻿In a Jazz scene ruled by the individual, the star, the featured soloist or lead composer, Sketches distinguishes itself as a band that truly utilizes the broad talents of each member. This Brooklyn-based quintet of highly accomplished composer/improvisers is built around a unique and profoundly simple idea﻿: truly collaborative composition. The process is straightforward. Before rehearsal each member shares a sketch from his notebook (e.g. any musical fragment, a collection of fragments, an incomplete tune) and another member uses that as the basis for a new composition. The band then rehearses and develops the piece further, making each musical choice together in a completely democratic way. Inherent in each piece is the challenge of blending two distinct musical personalities, yet with an ensemble of strong composers and sensitive performers, the results have been as engaging as they are unpredictable.

Volume One, released to critical acclaim on November 5th, 2013 on BaldHill Records, is SKETCHES' first release, having developed this concept for over a year – writing, rehearsing, and performing in New York's Small's Jazz Club and Douglass Street Music Collective – until a cohesive set of material was ready to record.

Volume Two, released October 14th, 2014 on BJURecords, includes 10 brand new compositions (2 from each member) plus a bonus track. As Dan Bilawsky writes in All About Jazz, "Same musicians, same winning concept, great new songs: that's what awaits on the second volume of music from the quintet collective known as Sketches."

Though the band’s premise is simple, their dedication to high artistic standards make for a time- consuming process – not to mention the virtuosic logistics required to coordinate the schedules of five of the busiest musicians in Brooklyn. Each member is also a bandleader and busy sideman in his own right, with collective credits including Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Fred Hersch, Steve Lacy, John Hollenbeck, George Garzone, Aaron Goldberg, Greg Osby, Aaron Parks, & Esperanza Spalding, among many others. They have also garnered multiple accolades from the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards, the BMI Foundation’s Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize/Manny Albam Commission, as well as both national and international performance competitions.﻿